#RunnerForLife

On a cold windy morning of the 25^th of Dec, 2013, when I randomly decided to go for a short run, little did I realise that it would change my life, for good. Five years hence, multiple 10kms, few Half Marathons and two Full Marathons later, I can proudly say I’m a “RUNNER FOR LIFE!”

I started running primarily to lose weight that I had put on post the birth of my son. My workout and gym routine became irregular and I ended up piling on the kilos. Once things settled down, I wanted to do something different and decided to give running a try. Though the first few days were torturous where I unsuccessfully tried my hand at running, I’m proud of the fact that I didn’t give up. I have slowly and steadily progressed from doing 5kms to Full Marathons, something that I never even dreamt of when I started.

I finished my first Full Marathon on the 15^th of Jan, 2017, in Mumbai. Post that I didn’t have any running targets, took things easy and just meandered along (didn’t give up running though). That’s when I realised the need for a more focussed and methodical approach to running, one that would help me achieve my targets. That’s when I decided to join PaceMakers with a few running buddies of mine and rest, as they say, is history!

It took me time to get used to Pani sir’s approach to running, his training schedule and was fretting about the targets that he set for me. However gradually the result of all the gruelling training sessions started showing up in the events that I participated in. More than the personal best timings that I constantly clocked, the training has helped me become a strong runner and made me aware of my capabilities, which I didn’t know existed until I joined the group. Running with a group always makes a difference and I realised that when I started training with the other members of the group. Their motivation, zeal, enthusiasm and constant drive to excel rubs off automatically and you end up giving your best all the time. It has been a fabulous 6 months with the PaceMakers group so far and I hope to go long & strong with them!

What started off as an activity to lose weight has become a passion, something that I hope to continue for the rest of my life. It provides a ‘ME’ time, wherein I interact, introspect and put things in perspective. There’s a famous quote that I can think of now – “If you don’t get solutions to your problems during your long run, you never will!” and I absolutely believe that. They say runners are crazy and I’m more than happy to be one!

My First Half Marathon

Dec 25, 2013 - A day I consider a very auspicious one. That's the day I started running! I could barely run 100 metres then but I made a start and haven't looked back since. Lighter by almost 7 kgs and post numerous runs, I am sure my body says 'thank you'. And as Mark Twain said, 'the secret of getting ahead is getting started' and am happy that I made a start and didn't give up!

After doing quite a few 10K runs, I decided it was time to upgrade and signed up for my first half marathon (for those who aren't aware, it's 21.1 kms). It was on the 21st of September, 2014 at the Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM), Srirangapatna, considered one of the toughest trails in India. It's a beautiful trail along the river Kaveri dotted with vast green fields and amazing countryside. It's considered one of the toughest primarily because of the heat & humidity on the trail and the toll it takes on the runners. 

The following is a brief account of what was going on in my mind during that 2 hours & 26 minutes:

5th km - "This is like a walk in the park!"

10th km - "So far so good, I'm going to rock it!"

15th km - "Getting a bit tough but I think I'll manage"

18th km - "I could have slept couple of hours extra this morning"

20th km - "This is my last run".

21.1 km (just after crossing the finish line) - "I need to train a little better for my next run".

The satisfaction after completion is something that I cannot describe in words! Having completed this wonderful run, I am now looking forward to my next half marathon which is a little less than a month away!

That's the magic of running, you get addicted to it! Bring it on!

First Year of Fatherhood

“May 23, 2012 – The D-day

4.30am – Up early

5.30am – Leave home

6.05am – At Cloudnine Jayanagar

6.15am – Preparations begin; anxious moments for us

7.02:50am – Mushki is here; a boy!!!

2.15pm – Mushki adjusting to our world; fun watching him

5.00pm – No one wants to leave him and go; right from grandparents to aunties to uncles

10.00pm – An unforgettable day comes to an end. I go to bed with Mushki close to me, need to keep an eye on him. A feeling of bliss envelopes me”!

The above is etched not just in my diary but in my mind as well. It has been one year since Mushki (as we call him) came into our lives. Boy, what a year it has been!

As I pen down my thoughts on the year gone by, lots of memories, thoughts and sights of Mushki flash across in front of me. Be it the day he was born, the first time we got him home, his naming ceremony, the first time he smiled, the first time he crawled, the first time he stood up, the first few steps that he took and so on. It has been a wonderful roller-coaster ride and I definitely can’t imagine how our world would have been without him in this last one year!

And how has his arrival changed my life? Let’s see…

I can’t express how I feel when he comes crawling towards me with a big smile on his face when am home in the evening after a hectic day at work; I can’t express how I feel when he puts his head on my shoulder & dozes away when he’s sleepy; I can’t express how I feel seeing him splash water all over the place when I give him a bath; I can’t express how I feel when I see him take a few duck-steps as he tries his hand at walking independently. I can probably go on and on and on.

Well, well, I know not everything is perfect though. To continue from where I left off, I can’t express how I feel when he doesn’t listen to me and proceeds to accomplish the mischief that he sets out to do; I can’t express how I feel when he gets really cranky and keeps crying; I can’t express how I feel when he spits out food when I am feeding him; I can't express how I feel when he jumps on the laptop everytime I take it out.

But at the end of the day, there is no better stress-buster than him and I look forward to spending as much time as possible during weekday evenings and the weekend with him. He brings a smile on our face like no one else can.

And finally to all those who are yet to become parents, I would like to quote a cliché, “you’ll know when you become a parent!”

Happy Fifth Birthday!!

OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF… OOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF….

That’s the CPR my blog badly needs. My first post after a whopping 258 days!!! That shows how busy or rather, how lazy I have been!

Not too sure what has kept me away from my blog for such a long time but then I hope I would be regular going forward.

Anyways, my blog celebrated it’s fifth birthday on the 14th of Sep and I incidentally turned 31 the same day. And like I have been telling everyone, it’s no longer a “happy” birthday; it’s just another birthday!

This time around I got a Nexus One phone (thanks to the wifey & dad) and also got myself inked (see photo).

More posts to follow. Hopefully!!!

Holmes, Reinvented!

One of the very few things, or rather the only thing that can be done for entertainment in this boring little city of Stamford is watching movies (that's what I realized from my stay here so far) and that's precisely what a colleague and me did during the first weekend of mine here.

A home-theater kind of an environment (96-seater auditorium), a screen which was slightly bigger than the one at home, a handful of people and we were all set to watch SHERLOCK HOLMES. We were welcomed into the auditorium with some dirty looks from a teenaged couple, seated right at the back (you know for what!), to ensure that we didn't plonk ourselves right next to them. Thankfully, we were intelligent enough to understand that and made ourselves comfortable right in the middle of the auditorium and also ensured that we didn't turn around to look at them till the end. We got to watch trailers of almost 10 new releases before the movie began; probably they were waiting for a few more people to come in at the last moment but that wasn't to happen.

The movie, directed by Guy Ritchie (more popularly, the ex-husband of Madonna), is basically Sherlock Holmes reinvented which might actually make Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turn in his grave and definitely will not go down well with the purists but what the heck, it is damn entertaining!!! With his reckless attitude, he may not be the refined Holmes of Doyle's conjuring, but this feisty re-imagining or rather, re-imaging is impressive I must say. He is no suave (a la James Bond) but definitely a man of action; does some bone-crunching and gets his hand dirty, literally. He has a rough energy; is clumsy to the core but his intellectual prowess, observation powers, deductive reasoning and forensic skills are very much intact. And he still is Doyle's super-sleuth, a brainy and more importantly, a brawny Sherlock Holmes!!!

Robert Downey Jr. in the title role is a delight to watch. His mannerisms and body language suit the role to the T and re-establishes the fact that he is one of the best in the business. Jude Law, as Dr. Watson, is a perfect match to Downey and the crackling chemistry between them is definitely the highlight of the movie!!!

And with the ending hinting at the arrival of Holmes' arch-rival Prof. Moriarty, the sequel should be worth waiting for.

Elementary, my dear Watson!!!

My first trip to the US of A

Jan 15, 2010 – 6pm (Bangalore): Left home to take the Jet Airways 10.40pm flight (9W466) to Chennai, with the moist-eyed Sappu seeing me off. The food articles I was carrying were heavier than my clothes and occupied most of the space in my baggage. I had lots of khakras, maggi noodles, biscuits, some snack items like bhujia, moong dal, puris/nippats, pickle and some powders to be mixed with rice. Not too sure if I was going for a picnic or an official trip!!

Jan 15, 2010 – 11pm (Chennai): Reached Chennai in approx half hour. It took me an hour to reach the Bangalore airport from home and another one hour for all the other formalities (boarding card, security check etc). A sandwich and a brownie for dinner in the flight at 11.15pm; I never say no to food be it any time of the day!!!

Jan 15, 2010 – 11.15pm (Chennai): In queue for the Immigration formalities. I had approx 100 people in front of me (guess entire Chennai was headed to the US!!); no proper queue; total mess and chaos reigned supreme.

Jan 16, 2010 – 12.15am (Chennai): Somehow managed to wade through the sea of humanity to finish the immigration stuff and then it was time to fight away sleep and wait for the flight which was scheduled to depart at 1.35am!!

Jan 16, 2010 – 1.35am (Chennai): Departure of Jet Airways flight 9W226 to New York via Brussels. A quick call to Sappu (who was still awake) to confirm that I was on the right flight (she was scared that I might get lost and take a wrong flight to Nigeria!!!).

Jan 16, 2010 – 2am (Chennai): We were welcomed onboard with a towel dipped in cold water (not too sure what it’s called) and a welcome drink - a canned bottle of lemon juice. And then it was time for dinner, or was it breakfast? Whatever, it was food and I had to eat. Rice with some subzi, a bowl of curds and a dessert (a vanilla cake with chocolate topping I think). And forgot to mention, we were offered alcohol as well and I had 2 large vodkas with sprite (Sappu would be proud of me!!!).

Jan 16, 2010 – 2.30am (Chennai): After dinner, the lights were switched off and it was time for a nap. However, the inflight entertainment had so many options that I considered skipping sleep and watching all the movies (there were the English ones like Informant, Inglourious Bastards apart from some classics; hindi included Wanted, Kaminey, Love Aaj Kal, apart from lots of others); approx 50 odd movies that I could choose from!!! But wiseness prevailed and I decided to go to sleep!!

Jan 16, 2010 – 6am (god knows where): The lights were switched on and we were given hot towels this time and a fruit juice to get us ready for breakfast (when will you wake me up like that Sappu?). It was time for breakfast (croissant, fruits, dosa with chutney and tea). I quickly freshened up and came back to ensure that I don’t miss it!! After breakfast, decided to watch Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Bastards. 10 minutes into the movie and I decided to switch to a hindi one primarily because it did not have subtitles. I watched Kaminey for the second time. I didn’t need subtitles because it was in hindi!!

Jan 16, 2010 - 8am (Brussels): After completing 10 hours in the air (my longest ever), I reached Brussels. And just when the plane was landing, the guy sitting next to me decided to throw up (not on me, thank god!!). He used up the vomit bags of almost all the other passengers and I was scared that the crew would run out of stock. Thankfully, he was finished with the ordeal before we got off the plane. It was 2 deg C and freezing like hell in Brussels. But the most painful part was the security check that we had to undergo at the Brussels airport.

Jan 16, 2010 – 9.30am (Brussels): After almost an hour and a half in the queue, I felt Chennai was better. We had to remove our jackets, shoes, belts (thankfully not trousers)!! The security officer who was checking me tried to locate the non-existent explosives / bombs and almost got his hand close to my private parts (unfortunately it was a guy). Once he was convinced that I was clean, I was let go to catch my connecting flight to New York!!

Jan 16, 2010 – 10.10am (Brussels): Now it was time for the second leg of my journey, from Brussels to New York. And to my horror, the ‘vomit-man’ was sitting next to me again. I began my prayers!! It was time for welcoming us onboard again with hot towels this time and lemon juice. I was anxiously waiting to see what I would be given for breakfast or was it lunch? Whatever. Unfortunately, no food came and I thought of reading this time around instead of watching a movie. I picked up Chetan Bhagat’s latest and continued from where I left.

Jan 16, 2010 – 12pm (not too sure where): It was time for lunch and we were served one chapathi, malai kofta, peas subzi, fried rice and curds. I was tempted to tell my neighbour to refrain from having food but couldn’t muster up courage (even he had paid for the tickets, I couldn’t ask him to skip food!!). We were served alcohol as well but I wasn’t too keen because the vodka that I had a few hours back would last me a month. And oh yes, I watched Salman Khan’s “Wanted” (one of the biggest blockbusters of 2009) to keep me company while having food! He still cannot act for nuts even after being in the industry for such a long time!!! And it was time for another movie after I was done with ‘never’ Wanted. I ended up watching a movie called ‘Frantic’ starring Harrison Ford. Now you might think why I watched this English movie without subtitles. The reason is that all Harrison Ford movies have similar plots (his family is kidnapped and he sets out in their search; think Firewall, Air Force One, Patriot Games and so on & so forth). And fyi, in this movie it’s his wife who is kidnapped!!!

Jan 16, 2010 – 11pm (closer to NY): A chocostick ice-cream at the fag end of the flight to ensure a sweet ending to our journey. How I love ice creams!!! I noticed that my neighbour didn’t take the ice cream and wanted to ask him if I could take it on his behalf. But I suddenly remembered what happened just before the flight landed in Brussels and kept my mouth shut!!

Jan 16, 2010 – 12.40pm (New York): Landed at the JFK International Airport in New York, safe and sound. Once again, gave a quick call to Sappu to confirm that I had indeed landed in US!!

2 States - The story of my marriage as well!!

Just happened to read the latest Chetan Bhagat bestseller. This is supposedly his best work till date and that’s what I feel as well. Five Point Someone was a good start and was followed by One Night @ The Call Centre which was quite fine (not in the league of his first one though). I haven’t read Three Mistakes Of My Life as it neither excited me nor did it get good reviews. In line with the tradition of his novels beginning with a numeric, the current one is titled 2 States – The Story Of My Marriage and is a sequel to his first novel.

It is the story about a couple coming from two different states of India, who face hardships in convincing their parents and persuading them to get married. The novel is a fiction, but is said to be inspired from the real story of Chetan and his wife who are from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, respectively.

To begin with, I expected the novel to reflect a bit of my personal life which it obviously did and I wasn’t disappointed. Am sure those who have had intercaste / interstate marriages would definitely be able to relate to most of the events / circumstances depicted in the novel. Most of them seem true and believable and obviously, some part is fictional. It’s definitely not a literary classic and am sure Chetan himself wouldn’t term it that way. It is predictable with a wafer thin story of boy meeting girl, overcoming all obstacles and finally getting married (a la our movies) but the narration is what makes all the difference. And more importantly, you are able to connect with it.

Sapna was the first one to finish the novel and I remember how she laughed her heart out when Chetan describes Tamilians (Tamil Brahmins to be precise); their appearance (not all of them are dark, look at me Sapna!), food habits (probably all of them like curd rice, yours truly included), mannerisms etc etc. She definitely enjoyed reading the novel and had a nice time at the cost of my TamBrahm community! Well, some of the detailing were a bit over-the-top and exaggerated I should say but that’s what you probably call “artistic license”!

I, for my part, thoroughly enjoyed reading the description of “Punjabi families”; their loud talking ways, their food habits (paneer, ghee, butter!!) et al. However, I would definitely say that Marwaris (that’s what Sapna is) are probably a sober lot (their “sweet” eating habits notwithstanding!) compared to the Punjabis. I definitely wouldn’t forget my first trip to Rajasthan post-wedding where I was given a Kingly treatment by all her relatives; they literally fell over each other to make sure that the ‘kunwar-sa’ was taken care of well. Since I wasn’t used to such a kind of treatment, it was a little embarrassing initially. But then, am used to it nowadays and have started enjoying it as well.

Another ritual that literally gives me nightmares even now is ‘touching the feet’ of the elders. Not that I don’t want to do it but then it’s quite difficult to figure out whose feet I should be touching and whose not. I remember an instance in Rajasthan wherein there was an elderly lady (Sapna’s relative) who came up to me and I touched her feet. She moved away and I thought probably she doesn’t quite like me and so, didn’t want to bless me. But then to my shock I got to know that she was Sapna’s niece (and so theoretically I shouldn’t have touched her feet though she was older). Phew!!

One thing that Sapna keeps complaining about is that even after 3 years of marriage, I still find it difficult to figure out the names of her relatives and how exactly they are related to her. I just have a handful of relatives and Sapna has done a pretty good job of knowing who is who but the same is not the case with me. I just hope I figure this out by our 25th wedding anniversary!!!

We didn’t have to struggle as much as the couple in the novel to convince our parents for our marriage (touch wood). That was because not just Sapna but my in-laws were also floored by my charm and agreed instantly to me becoming their son-in-law (Sapna wouldn’t agree though!!).

But what I really liked about the novel were certain simple yet subtle points which the author makes; like when he says that South Indians can be great no. 2 people in an organization but are found wanting when it comes to taking up the no. 1 job; that he hopes that such intercaste / interstate marriages would help in uniting India (now you know the reason for me marrying Sapna!!!).

A nice breezy read is what I would say. Pick it up when you don’t feel like reading some heavy duty stuff!!!